Nine months after Barack Obama’s edge with young people, minority groups and women carried him to re-election, the Republican National Committee is beginning a new campaign to showcase the diversity in the GOP ranks.

Launched last week, the RNC’s Rising Stars initiative highlights the next generation of the Republican Party, a group of activists, authors, elected officials and candidates that combats the GOP’s homogenous image. “The Republican Party has gotten a stereotype as being populated mostly with old white men,” New Hampshire state representative Marilinda Garcia, one of the RNC’s Rising Stars, tells TIME. “The point is to highlight people such as myself who are not old white men, along with other young people, and let us be the messengers.”

The initiative will tout about four new up-and-coming Republicans every three months. In addition to Garcia, the first batch of Rising Stars includes T.W. Shannon, Oklahoma’s first African-American speaker of the house and a protégé of former Representative J.C. Watts; conservative writer Scott Erickson; and Karin Agness, the founder of a group for conservative college women.

Putting new faces on TV is just one element of the Republican rebranding project touched off by an election in which Obama dominated demographics like women, voters under 30, Hispanics and African Americans. “Obviously at the aftermath of the 2012 election, the party realized that we have a lot of work to do,” says RNC spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores. In addition to new investments in digital technology and outreach to minority communities, the RNC currently has over 150 field workers talking to voters, Flores says.

But it may not be easy for the GOP to make inroads with these groups in time for 2016 — particularly as some Republicans sidetrack the rebranding campaign with inflammatory remarks, like Iowa Congressman Steve King’s comment that many immigrant children have “calves the size of cantaloupes because they’ve been hauling 75 lb. of marijuana across the desert.”

“We’ve been a little bit crippled in the past by some of the louder voices that have not put things very nicely and said things that are frankly offensive,” says Garcia, a Hispanic who was first elected to the New Hampshire state legislature at 23. At a town-hall-style meeting in Boston on Thursday, she joined the other Rising Stars to discuss ways to reach out to a more diverse slice of the American population.

“The liberal media would have you believe that there’s nobody that looks like the people on this stage that have an R behind their name. And that’s just not the case,” said Oklahoma’s Shannon, who suggested that the party should stress its belief in limited government and personal responsibility, two values that he learned from his local African-American church.

Agness, the founder and president of the Network of Enlightened Women, argued that the GOP would benefit by tackling the problem of liberal bias in universities. Discouraged by the lack of conservative outlets for women at the University of Virginia, she founded her own book club that has since grown to 20 campus chapters across the country. The organization creates a place on campus for these students to discuss their take on political and gender issues. “Women are not just some unified voting bloc that’s going to vote liberal every time, because it is more complicated than that,” Agness said.

For the RNC, highlighting the party’s diversity to voters is a smart move. But the effort to remedy Republican struggles with traditionally Democratic voting blocs may not pay off in time for 2016, when the GOP may face, in Hillary Clinton, a powerful candidate who would be bidding to become the first female President. “You don’t change an image like that or a social composition like that in a year or two years,” says Alex Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. “It will take time and real change for that to happen. I think we’re talking about a project that’s probably a project of a decade.”

The White Liberal motto is: "Embrace diversity AT ALL COSTS, even if it means compromising one's own safety and standard of living, and even when non-Whites put their own racial interests first."

Why are so many Whites celebrating diversity as they slowly become﻿ minorities in nations founded and built by Whites? White taxpayer money is being used to help fund diversity. In other words, Whites are paying to replace themselves by non-Whites.

Upshot? Whites are paying to become a minority! (read INSANITY)

And they are celebrating it!

Do non-Whites flock to White majority nations because Whites usually build the most desirable societies?

Is every race capable of building/maintaining a 1st world nation? (e.g. Detroit) Ever thought minorities are priveleged to live in White majority societies?

What's stopping minorities using their increasing wealth and power to promote their own interests at the expense of Whites? Minorities WILL NOT reciprocate the compassion and tolerance Whites have shown. (this cannot be emphasized enough)

I can't wait to see the look on White Liberal faces when Whites become a minority. Their multi-culti, Utopian dreams will come crashing down around them.

The greatest civilizations were built on recognizing people are not equal. Equality is a social construct. Race is a biological reality.

And @dakinsky is right, it isn't as important as it used to be, but this country is changing and you GOP idiots are shooting each others' grandmothers trying to battle for control of a shriveling, sniveling, insane, and dysfunctional party.

I'm watching you swirl ccw down the toilet, and enjoying every moment of it!

Democrats and Republicans have to stop this ridiculous notion that Race matters so (damn) much, because it simply does not. Appealing to race and racial biases distracts attention from the Very Serious Issues facing America today.

If anything, focusing on racial demographics invites modern-day discrimination, by ludicrously exalting the minorities, and shamelessly castigating the White majority.

In the year 2013, TIME Magazine and other outlets should be encouraging the public to consider larger issues, and to ignore these ridiculous race-based digressions in the national conversation.

You can say it anyway you like or dress as anything you like but stupid ideas are just that: stupid ideas. Repubs aren't hurting because they're white, they're hurting because nothing coming out of their mouth makes logical sense and been Latin/Black/Woman doesn't make your ideas any better. There might also be a backlash against these new faces because most logical people that belong to these races might look at these people as self haters. The only phrase that comes to mind is "stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself..."

The younger people believe in the classic Republican/conservative ideals; work hard, be ethical, protect each other, don't tell other people what to do, judge people on their merit. (unionization was created by conservatives to protect the little guy). But the current GOP leadership is about take advantage, make money any way possible, destroy collectives, dictate other people's religion and sex life, judge people on their language and skin color.

The young people are waging an admirable fight but they're going to lose bc the crazies are in power internally, and any benefits they bring e.g. more voters and funds, only gives power to the crazies. They'd far be better off leaving and forming a separate party, eg the Real Conservatives. It's the only credible group that can take on Democrats.

The Republicans lost the election because
they're bigots, extremists, liars, religious fanatics, corrupt, misogynistic,
homophobic, racist, xenophobic, favor the rich over there the middle and lower
class, care more about corporations than the environment, mismanage the
economy, are anti-union, can't keep church and state separate, can't work with
other countries and international organizations, won't pass reasonable gun
control laws, practice the politics of division, appoint right-wing extremist
ideologues to the courts, are war mongers, create huge deficits and debt, etc.

If you thought the GOP would adopt more moderate positions after its
2012 debacle, you were wrong. From debate threats to defunding Obamacare
and even more purges, Michael Tomasky on how the insanity’s only
increasing.

Let me get this straight Romney got something like 47.1 per cent of the popularr vote-old white men? But you are correct we as a rule aren't as often homosexual poor and in need of an abortion, etc...what amazes me today is the lack of understanding of how the founding fathers structured our system of government....for change to be very slow...this is how you stay out of dictatorships...but when you listen to rap music all day what do you expect?

hummm... you can coat the republican national platform in chocolate.... but people will still not eat it... the problem is the platform... and the stupid people that spout the party line.... not much chance of changing until the current generation dies out....

SINCE 1996......WHEN I OBSERVED THE REPUBLICANS EVER SINCE IN CLOSE RANGE......THEY HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONNECT WITH THE BLACKS AND HISPANICS......

I TOLD THEM .....IN A SPEECH.....THAT YOU DO NOT SEND A WHITE MAN IN A SUIT......WHO TALKS NORMAL TO SEE THE BROTHERS........YOU HAVE TO SEND SOMEBODY.....WHO IS.....HIP......COOL.....AND KNOWS HOW TO SAY.....MTHRTRUCKER......REAL WELL !!!......LOL......LIKE RICHARD PRYOR.....AND TODAY....THE HIPSNICS AND THE BROTHERS REVERE......TONY MONTANA.....AL PACINO .....IN SCARFACE....

THE HISPANICS AND THE BLACKS.....UNDERSTAND FREE ENTERPRISE.......THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO BY NEO-COMMUNISTS LIKE THE NOW DEMOCRATS LEFTWING RADICAL LIBERALS AND ENVIRONMENTAL WACKOS.......AFTER ALL.....THEY ARE WARRIORS......THEY UNDERSTAND .....BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE.

THE HISPANICS AND THE BLACKS WHO COME TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.....TALK LIKE WHITES......THEY HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO TALK ......STREET......THEN YOU CAN GET THE TRUST AND WOTES OF THE HISPANICS AND THE BROTHERS.

@CameronRobert Sorry to say...but you hit the nail on the head. Again...they have to "rebrand" and "change the face" of their party to attempt to appeal to all of the people that they have no respect for. I.E. Women, Ethnics, Impoverished, and Progressives.

Excuse me, but I do not live on a country club, nor am I a member of the 1% (far from it).

Look closely at what I said. The media focuses so much attention on diversity, diversity, diversity. For what reason? There is not a single study that says racial diversity adds a dollar of value to universities, corporations, or to the political arena. Adding diversity is nothing more than a 'feel-good' activity than a proven benefit.

Politics should not be driven by racial diversity. Like college/job applications, it should be driven by past accomplishments, skills, experiences, etc.. Race should not enter into the conversation at all.

@skipbrackett@CameronRobert Nasty, uncalled for and ignorant! Skip, I come from a long line of Ohio Republicans and would still vote Republican if so many hateful people hadn't invaded their ranks. What Cameron stated is exactly why I left.